Berwick is preparing for a blood-stirring annual lecture on the subject of the town’s turbulent history in the middle ages - a time when the town changed hands between the English and Scots a total of 13 times.

Once the principal port-city of Medieval Scotland, Berwick was besieged, stormed, sacked, burned massacred and even sold.

Here, in the second part of his feature, Dr Richard Moore, visiting lecturer in English literature at Newcastle University, describes how the townsfolk tended to resist the Scots and stuck by Hanovarian King George II of England.

It is 1745 and revolt is in the air once more, this time as Jacobite sympathisers try to supplant George II with Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Dutch and Hessian troops now moved through Berwick to join Sir John Cope at Dunbar. They were soundly defeated at Prestonpans on 20th September 1745 and Cope and his troops fled south to Berwick.

This gave rise to the rebel song, Hey, Johnnie Cope, are Ye Waukin’ Yet? in which the Berwickers roundly mock the defeated general.

On the whole, Berwick remained loyal to the Hanoverians.

Government expeditions, most notably by the Duke of Cumberland, passed through Berwick to great acclaim.

The army was greeted with food and drink and the windows of Jacobite supporters were broken. After his victory at Culloden, Cumberland marched back and was wined and dined in Berwick.

A lavish ball was held in his honour and he was given the Freedom of the Town in a gold box. Not only that. One of the Elizabethan bastions, previously called Middle Mount, was renamed Cumberland Bastion in his honour.

Perhaps a cheerful thing to say is that, though the Berwick area, was noted for war and lawlessness, the horrors certainly had limits. In the whole of the 18th century no one in Berwick was hanged, drawn and quartered - then still the traditional punishment for treason.

There were, however, plenty of lesser crimes, some punished rather peremptorily. Uniquely the local authorities in Berwick could periodically deliver people to gaol, stage trials and order executions, even without the presence or permission of an itinerant Judge of Assize.

Local goal delivery at Berwick was brought to an end by an Act of Parliament in 1842 but prison conditions had been and remained poor.

In 1819, Elizabeth Fry visited and reported that “nothing can be much more defective than this small prison... The injustice and barbarity of such a mode of confinement are too conspicuous to require a comment.”

A group of enthusiasts re-enact a Jacobite night march from Culloden to Nairn

Conditions did not improve. In 1838 the first government inspection of Berwick Gaol elicited a scathing report on every aspect.

This extended into the prison itself: “Until within the last two or three years, the prison was often much crowded; and as young and old, males and females, met in the same day room, with sleeping rooms opening into it, scenes of the greatest profligacy were, I understand, of frequent occurrence”.

Eventually changes were made. On November 26, 1849, a new gaol was opened in Wallace Green, designed by a Mr. Brown of Edinburgh.

It was hoped, among other things, that this would reduce the number of prison escapes. These included even a blind man who in 1816 was allowed onto the roof of the old prison. At the time workmen were repairing the roof of the Town Hall, so the blind man – a debtor – simply climbed down their ladder. He then visited his solicitor who advised him to return.

This was to the “surprise and wonder” of the jailer who didn’t know he had gone.

Although Berwick was often regarded as rather lawless, there were between 1672 and 1823 only four civil executions. The first involved the hanging of the vicar, John Smithson, for the murder of his wife Sarah. But not all slayings led to a death sentence.

In 1715 John Carr was indicted for the murder of John Miller but was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. He was burnt on the hand (i.e. branded) and released subject to recognisances.

Almost certainly he escaped a worse punishment by pleading benefit of clergy – meaning that he showed the ability to read aloud a test-piece from the Bible.

Throughout the 18th century there are several examples of punishments being, if anything, lighter than we might have expected.

Many were, however, transported.

A group of enthusiasts re-enact a Jacobite night march from Culloden to Nairn

On May 23, 1739, Isabel Clark was ordered to endure transportation to America for seven years. Her crime was stealing handkerchiefs to the value of one shilling.

The fact remains that some people did endure the ultimate penalty. In November 1740 James Clarkson was hanged for burglary at the house of George Ord.

He was the first to be executed here for nearly 70 years but rather surprisingly the justices ordered that the new gallows should remain standing.

From these Mary Scott, a spinster, escaped six years later. She had been sentenced to death for smothering her baby son but was pardoned by the King. Not so lucky were a Welshman and an Irishman, named Lewis and Baillie, who in 1746 were executed by firing squad for desertion.

A few people made last-minute daring attempts at escape. In February 1748 George Maccan who had deserted no less than four times (including once when he joined the Jacobites) attempted to flee from jail on the morning of his execution.

The noise of the drums beating the reveillé covered the noise as he used his handcuffs to beast large chunks of stone out of the prison wall. It availed him nothing. He was a thief as well as a deserter and was almost immediately shot.

One rather comforting element is that Berwick juries were often quite generous. True, women could be whipped through the streets and in 1758 a certain Margaret Dryden was hanged for the murder of her baby, but petty theft was often regarded humanely. In 1786 Peter Abel was charged with stealing goods worth thirty seven shillings and sixpence but found guilty of stealing goods worth only twopence.

This demonstrates the reluctance of a jury to return a verdict that would attract the death penalty - usually applied when the goods stolen were worth more than one shilling.

A group of enthusiasts re-enact a Jacobite night march from Culloden to Nairn

Eventually the Berwick justice system became more like what it is now. In 1827 benefit of clergy was abolished but at the same time executions became a rarity.

In 1816 death sentences for counterfeiting were passed on five people, but all were reprieved and transported for life.

Six years later the last person to be executed at Berwick found herself tried for the murder of her husband. This was Grace Griffin who, one early morning, when her husband was helpless with drink, had stamped on him, causing a ruptured bladder and other fatal injuries.

This then is a brief history of Berwick in blood.

Nowadays the town is relatively peaceful and most of the darker issues are fortunately long behind us.

It is, however, worth remembering our troubled past and acknowledging that for every crime and every battle there are victims whose sufferings we should even now commemorate.

The Berwick upon Tweed Educational Association lecture entitled Blood in the Borders is given by Dr Richard Moore and will take place on Tuesday, December 1 at the William Elder Building on Castlegate, Berwick.